Installing Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 on PS3

Installing Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 on PS3


With Linux installed on your PS3, you can run the Firefox browser (much better than the PS3 browser), GAIM instant messenger (compatible with AIM), Open Office (suite of apps like Microsoft Office Word, Excel), great image creator and editor GIMP, FTP client, email client, video player, games etc.



Before you get started, you should grab a couple things that will make your life easier.


USB mouse and keyboard
USB Drive, Memory Card or Blank CD
Blank DVD
Two or three cans of beer and/or Mountain Dew

Step One
Get the Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 ISO file. You can get it here => http://ydl.osuosl.org/iso/yellowdog-...061208-PS3.iso

Then burn it to a blank DVD, use DVD Decrypter, it is in the Downloads section. Burn it a 1x speed, do not copy the ISO, you have to create an image.

Step Two
While you are downloading and burning the ISO file you can go ahead partition your PS3 hard drive to make room for the dog. Before you do this, make sure to back up your game saves onto a memory card or USB hard drive. After you backup, go into PS3 menu:

Settings===>System Settings===>Format Utility===>Format Hard Disk

You can not split the hard drive in half between the Game OS and Linux, you have to choose which gets 10 Gigs and which gets the rest. I would opt to give 10 Gigs to Linux and leave the rest to the PS3 Game system for future game saves and storage. You can hook up an external hard drive later. If you have a 20 Gig system, you definitely need to give 10 Gigs to Linux (Other OS) and the rest to PS3. Once you finally hit Yes to format your system will do go ahead and do it and then reboot with everything you had gone.

Step 3
Now you need some things off the net that will allow the boot and install to happen. They are both rather small files and are free to grab from the websites listed below.

1. otheros.self which can be found at http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openp...a/otheros.self
2. the kboot file (otheros.bld) which can be found at www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/installation/ps3/otheros.bld

Store these 2 files on a memory card, blank CD or USB drive. You HAVE to put them in a specific folder. Create a folder called PS3, then inside PS3 folder, create a folder called otheros, and put both files in this folder.

Now you have to plug in a USB keyboard and Mouse to complete the installation. I got a cheap wireless mouse and keyboard with a USB hub from Walmart and that did the trick.

Put in your CD disk, USB drive, memory stick or whatever you loaded the files otheros files on. Then go to:

Settings===>System Settings===>Install Other OS



When you click this the PS3 will start scanning all available options for the necessary files. Once it does this, it will find the file otheros.self and will ask you to confirm it. Press X on the controller and then follow the onscreen instructions.



Once this is done you still have to tell the system to boot up with this new OS. Go to:

Settings===>System Settings===>Default System and select Other OS




Now put the DVD of Linux that you created in the drive. In order for the installer package to boot you have to restart the system, so restart it.

Step Four
After you restart the system, you will see two penguins in the upper left hand corner of the screen along with a whole lot of text scrolling.



the long message will happen every time you boot Linux. Eventually you will get a "kboot" text prompt.

In the future you will be able to boot back to the game OS by typing boot-game-os at the kboot promt, but for now just leave it be and the install will continue. If you don't see the kboot and the system seems to be stuck in a loop, your keyboard and mouse might not be supported. When this happened to me all I did was unplug the keyboard and it stopped. I then held the power button on the system for five seconds until it beeped and it rebooted to the dashboard no worse for wear. If this happens just repeat the second half of step three and start over.

Now comes the tricky part. If you are on an HD TV, you will automatically be placed in the graphical set up. You will know that this has occurred when the screen flashes and there are SIX penguins on the top of the screen as well as much smaller type. If this is the case then you should be good to go. If you are one of the unlucky people who is still stuck with a standard definition television, then you are going to have to deal with the text install. This is a bit trickier, but you can read the next post for those instructions.

Assuming that you are doing the graphical install, the next parts are all rather easy. The only part that is a bit scary is when the system asks you some questions relating to whether or not you want to format the partition for Linux.




Just hit yes to the two questions and the system will start the overall install. When this is going on, I would recommend finding something else to do as it took my system almost a full hour to complete installation.




Once the system is installed, it will prompt you to create a root password. This is the system administrator password and goes with the login ID root. Make sure to remember it as you will need it to install or make any major changes to your system. It will then ask you to make a general user ID and password. WRITE THE NAME & PASSWORDS DOWN.



After all this fun, the system will reboot and you will be in the wonderful world of Linux. Yellow Dog has a fairly robust GUI so if you are used to windows, you will have no problem with this.





Note that the wireless (60 Gig version) is not supported by Linux yet, but Terrasoft is working on it and it is in beta, drivers will be released soon.

HOW TO GET BACK TO PS3 GAME OS:

You can either:
1. Type boot-game-os at the kboot prompt
2. Type boot-game-os in the terminal app when in Linux (must be logged in as root).

Once in the Game OS, to get back to Linux, change the boot preference in the system menu and restart the machine.

OK then. You have modded your PS3.


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Text Install Guide for YDL 5.0

Big ups to PhoenixCE for the great write up.

First thing you are going to have to do is fire up your PS3 in linux and get to the localhost login prompt.

Type root and press [ENTER]

Next you will be asked to enter in the password for the user root. If you don't remember it, re-install Linux.

Now you should be looking at the command line.

First thing you need to do in order to get the gui or graphical system running is download Xautoconfig to your PS3. If you have a ethernet cable hooked up to your PS3. Type this now.



and press [ENTER]

If you want to get this Xautoconfig from your PC, get a SD Card. Pretty much any size will do the rpm file is only about 36k in size.

Next check and make sure the SD Card is using the FAT32 file system. In Windows just right click on your SD Card and check the properties. If the card isn't FAT32, format the card to that file system.

Now download the above rpm file to your computer and put it on the SD Card. Take the SD Card to your PS3 and put the card into the SD Card slot in your PS3. You'll see some things pop up on your tv. That's
normal and just ignore it.

Okay, we have to mount your card so you can access the files on it. This is what you have to type at the command line:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdd1 /mnt and press [ENTER]

Linux should mount your card so you can access the file on it.
Next we want to install that rpm file.
If you downloaded the rpm file without the SD Card. Type this

rpm -ivh Xautoconfig-0.23-2.ydl.2.ppc.rpm and press [ENTER]

If you used an SD Card to get the file. You'll have to type this

Type rpm -ivh /mnt/Xautoconfig-0.23-2.ydl.2.ppc.rpm and press [ENTER]

The file will now run and you don't have to do anything.

Now Type Xautoconfig and press [ENTER]

Next thing we have to do is edit a file to make Linux goto the gui after boot up. Type this at the command line.

Type vi /etc/inittab and press [ENTER]

Look for the line that reads:

id3:initdefault:

and change it to

id:5:initdefault:

If you can't change the line. Press [INSERT] on your keyboard before hand.

After you edit the file Press [ESC] which will switch back to command mode

Type :wq and press [ENTER]

That will save and quit the file editor. If you doesn't work, you might
need to press esc again to make sure it went back to the command mode
and try using :wq again.

Next, if you want, we need to edit the kboot.conf file so at startup,
Kboot default to the screen resolution of your choice. Type this at the
command line.

Type vi /etc/kboot.conf

Look for the line that reads:

default=ydl

if you have a SDTV / 480i

change it to:

default=ydl480i

if you have a HDTV / 1080i

change it to:

default=ydl1080i

Now save and quit like we did before.

Okay, everything should be ready to go. All you have to do now is reboot your PS3. Just type this at the command line.

Type reboot and press [ENTER]

Your PS3 should now be rebooting and should load into the gui